


The Face of Family

by ClaireKat



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-17
Updated: 2015-07-17
Packaged: 2018-04-09 20:34:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4363274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClaireKat/pseuds/ClaireKat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Katara and Kya spend the day practicing waterbending together, and Kya realizes just how lucky she is to have the family she does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Face of Family

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little fluffy piece I wrote a while back, I wanted to visualize the happy family and add in some implied Tokka and Kataang because I'm shipping trash. I hope you enjoy!

            “Mom, honestly, I think I’ve got the hang of it by now—”

            “Kya, practice makes perfect.”

            “But mom—”

            “No buts. Do you want to be the best waterbender you can be or not?”

            Kya didn’t understand where her mother was coming from at all. She had mastered the form; all she was doing was repeating it over and over and over again. It was tedious and boring, and Kya didn’t like it one bit. Just over the hill she could hear her older brother Bumi egging her younger brother Tenzin on. Tenzin might have still been a kid, but he was surprisingly strong as an airbender, and for some reason the soon-to-be United Republic soldier Bumi couldn’t get enough of watching his little bending brother perform all sorts of tricks, or just sending a gust of air into his annoying brother’s face to get him to leave him alone. Kya wanted to go and see what they were up to; she was sick of this stupid waterbending form.

            “—is the key. Kya are you listening to me?”

            “What? Oh, sorry mom…”

            Katara sighed, releasing the water she was bending and coming to her daughter’s side. “You’ve been distant lately. Training just not as fun anymore?”

            “Well, it’s different when it’s something new, Mom. But you’ve just been having me practice the same form all week…I’ve mastered it now!”

            “Oh really?” Katara raised an eyebrow. “All right then. Come with me.”

            Kya eyed her mother suspiciously, obediently following her mother’s confident strides over to the main training facility on the island. A fountain protruded from the center of this area, unlike the airbending and earthbending facilities Kya had seen her father as well as Aunt Toph training in before. The island was usually a mess after his skirmishes with her, but Kya’s mind was brought out of those memories as her mother’s voice drew her back to reality.

            “If you really think you’ve mastered it, let’s see if your skills can match your mouth.” Katara took her fighting stance, lean and poised, and Kya swallowed heavily. “Let’s have a little waterbending match.”

            “No, I mean, it’s okay…I can just go practice the form some more—”

            “Yay! Kya and Mom are gonna hash it out!” Bumi’s voice was deep and resonated throughout the island; Kya looked over to see him piggybacking Tenzin over the hill and taking a seat on the edge of the arena. “C’mon Tenzin let’s take some bets. I bet all my yuans Mom kicks Kya’s butt.”

            “I choose to remain neutral in such matters.” Tenzin mumbled as he crossed his arms and settled in to watch the match with his brother.

            “Mom, I’m serious, I can just go back and—”

            “What’s wrong Kya, don’t think you can hold a candle to your old mom?” Katara teased, sending a harmless water whip against her daughter’s cheek. “Tell you what, if you can get me off my feet, I won’t make you do anymore practice sessions for the next week.”

            The offer was tempting, and Kya did know her mother’s waterbending better than anyone else…she shrugged and took her fighting stance. “Deal.”

            Katara smirked and instantly jumped into action. Incasing her daughter’s feet in ice, she ran around the statue and began drenching her daughter with wave after wave of water streams. But Kya was capable. She was able to deflect most of them, and with calculated precision she unfroze her feet and rolled out of the way, spinning into a kneel and sending a stream of water at her mother’s feet to trip her up. Kya saw her mother’s feet start to fumble as Katara lost her foot and began to tumble, but in the next second she seemed to be stable again and bent a stream of water right at her daughter’s midsection, trying to unbalance her.

            Kya barely managed to bend some water behind her to steady herself, lunging to her feet and skating around the edge of the fountain on a sheet of ice. Katara wrapped a whip of water around Kya’s ankle, trying to pull her down, and Kya managed to break her hold and spun into the air, sliding down safely to the ground on another sheet of water. This trend continued for minutes, and before Kya knew it she was running out of breath. Bumi’s excited cheers were starting to irritate her, and Kya couldn’t understand how Katara hadn’t fallen yet. Kya had used every trick and tactic she knew to offset her mother’s footing, and she had seen Katara almost go down too many times for her luck to be a coincidence. Dropping her fighting stance and breathing heavily, Kya turned an accusing gaze to her mother.

            “I know he’s here.”

            Katara was breathing heavily as well, her face perplexed. “What are you talking about honey?”

            Kya rolled her eyes and placed her hands squarely on her hips. “Dad, I know you’re home from the council. You can come out, I figured it out.”

            Katara maintained her poker face, and Bumi just laughed blatantly at his sister, accusing her of craziness and tomfoolery that rivaled his borderline insane musings. But Kya wasn’t budging. Tenzin didn’t make a peep, and that made Kya suspicious. With lightening reflexes she bent a stream of water right over her little brother’s head and into the bushes that lie behind him. As she expected, a startled yelp erupted from behind, and Tenzin jumped a bit as their father emerged from his hiding spot behind the fledging airbender.

            “Aw, you caught me…” her father lamented, smiling cheekily at his daughter and stepping between Tenzin and Bumi, the former of whom jumped to his feet and hugged his returned father excitedly. Returning the hug, Aang lifted his youngest into his arms and turned his gaze back to Kya. “How did you know I was back there?”

            “Well, Mom wouldn’t fall no matter how hard I tried, and she wasn’t pulling off enough bending moves to compensate for it. Plus, Tenzin always gets extra quiet when he senses something, all that meditation and spiritual mumbo jumbo you’ve been teaching him.” Kya replied.

            Aang shrugged acquiescently, putting his son down as Bumi raced off at the sound of the doorbell to let the company in. Katara flashed her husband a questioning look as he came over and planted a petal soft kiss to her lips. “Who’s visiting today?”

            “Hey, twinkle toes, wanna see how good I am at metalbending now? Mom said if I keep this up I’ll be a master in no time.” The distinct voice of Toph’s daughter, Lin, resonated with confidence as the stubborn young girl stomped her way over to Tenzin, grabbing the metal pendant on his cloak and bending it into a heart.

            Tenzin began to whine and complain about Lin’s self-approved act of costume rearrangement as Sokka and Toph came out the back with Bumi leading them. Toph scolded her daughter for causing trouble before they had even gotten the chance for greetings, and Sokka greeted his sister and brother-in-law with a heartfelt hug. Kya watched the scene, crossing her arms and allowing a soft smile to grace her lips. There were times in her life when she wished she could just get away from it all, take one of the flying bisons from the stables and travel the world like her mother had. And then there were times like this, when Kya didn’t care about how good of a bender she was, or how much her brothers got on her nerves…looking at her family gathered in front of her now, Kya knew that the Avatar family would always be the happiest family, and that was enough.


End file.
